Re: Masculine Default Bias

Thanks for this. I wrote about this topic - in a MUCH less academic 
style - in 1996, published in Wired Women:

"How Hard Can it Be?" http://kcoyle.net/howhard.html

That the title is taken from a line in Thelma and Louise should give you 
the flavor. I based it on popular press - mainly computer magazines. 
Although much has changed over these ~25 years, so much also has not 
:-(. I return to it from time to time to think again about the beginning 
of personal computing and gaming.

It is undoubtedly time, if not overdue, for "How Hard Can it STILL Be?" ;-)

kc

On 8/30/20 12:58 PM, Heather Vescent wrote:
> Tess, & all,
> 
> I just finished reading this paper (not the 11 pages of references!) - 
> it is so fantastic! I highly recommend everyone on this list read this. 
> Perhaps then, the W3C can get a glimpse of how far we have to go to 
> support diversity in this organization.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> -Heather
> 
> On Sat, Aug 29, 2020 at 8:41 AM Theresa O'Connor <hober@apple.com 
> <mailto:hober@apple.com>> wrote:
> 
>     Hi all,
> 
>     I read this paper for a class earlier this summer, and I was happy to
>     learn via one of the authors on Twitter that it's been published.
> 
>     Masculine Defaults: Identifying and Mitigating Hidden Cultural Biases
> 
>     https://depts.washington.edu/sibl/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Cheryan-Markus-2020-Psychological-Review.pdf
> 
>     I highly, highly recommend it.
> 
>     Here's the abstract:
> 
>      > Understanding and remedying women’s underrepresentation in
>      > majority-male fields and occupations require the recognition of a
>      > lesser-known form of cultural bias called masculine defaults.
>      > Masculine defaults exist when aspects of a culture value, reward, or
>      > regard as standard, normal, neutral, or necessary characteristics or
>      > behaviors associated with the male gender role. Although feminist
>      > theorists have previously described and analyzed masculine defaults
>      > (e.g., Bem, 1984; de Beauvoir, 1953; Gilligan, 1982; Warren, 1977),
>      > here we define masculine defaults in more detail, distinguish them
>      > from more well-researched forms of bias, and describe how they
>      > contribute to women’s underrepresentation. We additionally
>     discuss how
>      > to counteract masculine defaults and possible challenges to
>     addressing
>      > them. Efforts to increase women’s participation in majority-male
>      > departments and companies would benefit from identifying and
>      > counteracting masculine defaults on multiple levels of organizational
>      > culture (i.e., ideas, institutional policies, interactions,
>      > individuals).
> 
> 
> 
>     Tess
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Heather Vescent <http://www.heathervescent.com/>
> Co-Chair, Credentials Community Group @W3C 
> <https://www.w3.org/community/credentials/>
> President, The Purple Tornado, Inc <https://thepurpletornado.com/>
> Author, The Secret of Spies (Available Oct 2020)
> Author, A Comprehensive Guide to Self Sovereign Identity 
> <https://ssiscoop.com/>
> Author, The Cyber Attack Survival Manual <http://amzn.to/2i2Jz5K>
> 
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-- 
Karen Coyle
kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
skype: kcoylenet

Received on Tuesday, 1 September 2020 20:43:35 UTC